Coal-fired electricity-generating plants account for a substantial portion of the approximately 1.05 billion tons of coal burned each year in the United States. Such power plants emit 1.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. Relatively recently, there has been an increased interest in how to reduce such carbon dioxide emissions, as carbon dioxide is known to act as a “greenhouse gas”, such that increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may play a role in increasing temperatures and/or climate change.
While various proposals exist for collecting, sequestering, and storing carbon dioxide, serious difficulties exist with commercializing any such proposals, often because due to cost constraints and other issues, their implementation is not practical. As such, there continues to exist a need for simple, inexpensive, and effective means for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.